1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plasma display panel used for a flat display device, and more particularly to a plasma display panel that is adapted to shorten an addressing time and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional alternating current plasma display panel has cells arranged in a matrix pattern. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the cells of the plasma display panel(PDP) includes an upper glass substrate 10 and a lower glass substrate 12 which are spaced, in parallel, with a barrier rib 14. The barrier rib 14 provides a discharge space isolated between the upper glass substrate 10 and the lower glass substrate 12. On the bottom surface of the upper glass substrate 10 is installed a sustaining electrode pair 16 which consists of a scanning/sustaining electrode 16A, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cY sustaining electrodexe2x80x9d, and a sustaining electrode 16B, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cZ sustaining-electrodexe2x80x9d. An upper dielectric layer 18 and a protective film 20 is sequentially formed on the bottom surface of the upper glass substrate 10 under which the sustaining electrode pair 16 is installed. The upper dielectric layer 18 accumulates electric charges, and the protective film 20 protects the upper dielectric layer 18 from a sputtering of plasma particles. The protective film 20 permits a life of the upper dielectric layer 18 to be prolonged, an emission efficiency of secondary electrons to be enhanced, and a change in a discharge characteristic due to an oxide contamination of a refractory metal to be restrained. To this end, the protective film 20 is mainly made from MgO. Meanwhile, the lower glass substrate 12 has an address electrode 22 provided on the surface thereof. On the lower glass substrate 12 provided with the address electrode 22 is coated a lower dielectric layer 24 for accumulating electric charges and a fluorescent layer 26 for emitting visible rays with intrinsic colors. The fluorescent layer 26 is coated on the lower glass substrate 12 in such a manner to be extended into a wall surface of the barrier rib 14. The fluorescent layer 26 is excited and transited by an ultraviolet with a short wavelength generated during the gas discharge to thereby emit red(R), green(G), and blue(B) visible lights. A mixture gas of Ne and Xe is filled in the discharge space provided by the barrier rib 14 so as to enhance the generation efficiency of an ultraviolet.
As shown in FIG. 2, an alternating current PDP having the cells with the structure as described above includes electrode lines arranged in a matrix pattern. In the alternating current(AC) PDP of FIG. 2, the Y sustaining electrode lines 16A and the Z sustaining electrode lines 16B is alternately arranged in the vertical direction. The Y and Z sustaining electrodes 16A and 16B are crossed with address electrode lines 22 arranged, in parallel, in the horizontal direction. For instance, to construct the conventional VGA-class color PDP with 640xc3x97480 pixels requires 480 Y and Z sustaining electrode line pairs(i.e., Y1 to Y480 and Z1 to Z480) and 1920 address electrode lines (i.e., X1 to X1920). To require 1920 in the number of address electrode lines is caused by a fact that a single pixel consists of red, green and blue color pixel. Each of the Y and Z sustaining electrode line pairs 16A and 16B making row lines allows the cells to be scanned in the line unit and, at the same time, the discharge to be kept continuously. The address electrode lines 22 making column lines are used to write a data into each cell of the PDP.
The AC PDP with such an electrode structure is driven in a sub-field system as shown in FIG. 3 so as to display a gray level of color picture. As shown in FIG. 3, a PDP driving method of sub-field system divides a frame interval for displaying a single picture into a plurality of sub-fields, for example, 8 sub-fields SF1 to SF8. Each of the plurality of sub-fields has a radiation interval increasing gradually in such a manner to have a brightness value of 20, 21, 22, . . . 2Xxe2x88x922, 2Xxe2x88x921. The gray level of a color picture is implemented by a combination of such sub-fields. For instance, when a single frame interval is divided into 8 sub-fields as shown in FIG. 3, the gray level from 0 to 256 is implemented. Each sub-field is divided into an address interval for selecting cells causing the discharge in the cells of the PDP and a sustaining interval for causing the radiation at each cell of the PDP. The address interval has a constant time width independently of the sub-fields while the sustaining interval has a different time width depending on the sub-fields. A wall charge is formed at the side of Y sustaining electrode in the address interval at each cell of the PDP to be discharged in the sustaining interval. In order to form a wall charge selectively at the cells of the PDP in this manner, the sustaining electrode lines Y1 to Y480 must sequentially be selected and, at the same time, the address electrodes X1 to X1920 is supplied with a data each time the sustaining electrode lines Y1 to Y480 are selected. More specifically, if a low voltage of scanning pulse is applied to the first sustaining electrode line Y1 and, simultaneously, a data pulse is applied to the address electrode lines X1 to X1920, then a discharge is selectively generated from cells positioned at an intersection of the first Y sustaining electrode line Y1 and the address electrode lines X1 to X1920. At this time, a discharge is generated only from the cells connected to the address electrode lines X applied with a high level of data pulse in the address electrode lines X1 to X1920 and, simultaneously, a wall charge is formed at the side of first Y sustaining electrode Y1 only at the cells as mentioned above. In the similar manner, a discharge is selectively generated by applying a low voltage of sustaining pulse to the second Y sustaining electrode line Y2 to the last Y sustaining electrode Y480 sequentially and, at the same time, applying a data pulse to the address electrode lines X1 to X1920 repeatedly. When such an address operation has been completed, a sustaining discharge is generated only from the cells formed with a wall charge by applying a sustaining voltage to each of the Y and Z sustaining electrode lines Y1 to Y480 and Z1 to Z480 simultaneously.
As described above, the conventional PDP driving method must sequentially select the Y sustaining electrode lines Y1 to Y480 every sub-field so as to select cells to be discharged. Due to this, the conventional PDP driving method can not help avoiding a long address interval. Also, the quantity of wall charges formed at the cells provided on the first row line in the course of the address interval becomes smaller than that formed at the cells provided on the last row lines. Due to this wall charge difference, a sustaining discharge appears non-uniformly on the panel. Such a non-uniformity in the sustaining discharge becomes more and more serious as the PDP has a tendency to a high picture quality. In view of this, it is required to provide a scheme capable of reducing the address interval.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a PDP that is adapted to shorten an address interval.
Further object of the present invention is to provide a PDP driving method that is suitable for shortening an address interval.
In order to achieve these and other objects of the invention, a plasma display panel according to one aspect of the present invention includes first and second sustaining electrode lines making each row line; and first and second address electrode lines making each column line. The plasma display panel further includes insulating material patterns formed in such a manner to be alternately superposed on the first and second address electrode lines as the row lines are progressed.
In a method of driving a plasma display panel according to another aspect of the present invention, an address discharge is simultaneously generated at two row lines by a data pulse applied to the first and second address electrode lines simultaneously and a voltage pulse synchronized with the data pulse to be applied to any one of the first and second sustaining electrode lines.